GRAVE-DIGGERS heaped four feet of top soil on a cancer victim's resting place for the second time in a month.

Grieving widow Barbara Cave, who lost her husband Maurice in May, was devastated when she took fresh flowers to his grave at Blacon Cemetery only to find there was no room to place them.

It was a cruel blow for Mrs Cave, 68, who endured the same experience last month when workers again piled soil from a neighbouring plot on her husband's neatly-kept grave.

At the time Chester City Council promised to review its procedures and ensure that wherever possible it would 'minimise any impact to adjoining graves'.

Mrs Cave's daughter-in-law Kerrie, 26, of Hillside Road, Blacon, said: 'My mother-in-law walked down and took flowers but she couldn't put them down. She was devastated. I'm speechless after we had been promised it wouldn't happen again.

'Barbara is devastated. She phoned me up and said she had been down to the grave. When I asked if it was all right, she said 'They've done it again'. I didn't know what to say. I can't express it. I can't believe how they could do it.'

The calamity was discovered on Tuesday.

Kerrie said her husband Steven had threatened to go down and remove the soil himself unless it was sorted out by the Wednesday morning.

'He is absolutely bouncing,' she added, explaining that her spouse would be visiting the cemetery office at the first opportunity. 'He's said if the soil is still there they will know about it.'

When the first incident occurred Steven was told it is 'procedure' when an adjacent grave is being dug for soil to be placed on boards on top of a nearby grave.

The family later received an apology from cemetery staff with a promise from the council that it would review its methods.

But his distraught wife Kerrie branded the actions 'disrespectful' and 'hurtful'.

She said: 'It was as if someone had punched you in the chest. My mother-in-law was frantic. Her only comfort is to go to the graveyard.'

Maurice Cave, a grandfather of four, was a Yorkshire man who moved to Chester 20 years ago, but he passed away on May 5 aged 69, after a six-year battle with cancer. He and Barbara, of Ashfield Crescent, Blacon, had been sweethearts since the age of 15.

Kerrie added: 'He was fighting cancer all these years. His daughter Helen got married on May 2 and last September we were told the cancer was terminal and he said 'I will make this wedding'. We said we could move it forward but he wouldn't hear of it and he did give her away.

'He deteriorated from then on. He deserves more than this.'

Kerrie, a mother of two who works for MBNA, has been informed that mini-diggers are used to dig the holes but said there was plenty of spare ground where the earth could be dumped.

She said family friend Rev Peris Williams, former vicar of Blacon's Holy Trinity Church, had explained that when similar circumstances arose at the church graveyard relatives were informed by letter that soil may be piled on their loved one's grave so they could choose whether to visit.

A spokesman for Chester City Council said: 'We promised Mrs Cave and her family we would contact them in advance if the same circumstances arose again. Unfortunately this didn't happen and we are extremely sorry.

'We are now carrying out our own internal investigation to find out what went wrong.

'As previously stated, we are reviewing our procedures to try and ensure we minimise the impact of new graves on adjoining graves.'